Satsu, Hitokiri
by ina-meishou
Summary: Shinobi fight with steel and jutsu, body and mind. Naruto fights with living steel forged with his soul.


Urahara looked down at the small blond kid glaring up at him.

Honestly, all he'd done was buy the food the shop keeper had been about to cheat the kid for and trade it fairly.

"Why?"

He considered the question for a moment before…

"Because the truly strong have no need to abuse the weak."

"So you're strong?"

Urahara quashed the urge to laugh at the boy. He had, after all, traveled all the way to this strange land in search of anonymity.

"Yes."

"Will you show me?"

Urahara found himself considering just that. It had been a long time since someone simply asked, without begging or bribery.

"It will be hard." He temporized.

The boys reply sealed it. Blue eyes looked up, flat, calm.

"Everything is."

Urahara shifted his grip on Benihime and turned towards his shop.

"Then come."

O0O

"Are you a Shinobi?"

Urahara looked up from his book at the small boy he had taken in.

"No."

"Oh."

"Why?"

Urahara snapped open his fan as the boy cocked his head, idly fanning the warm air of the basement from his face.

"Mizuki-sensei says I'm molding chakra wrong, but he won't tell me how."

Urahara grinned, the boy seemed bred to fish for information rather than ask for it. He wondered how long it had taken the lad to work up the frustration to bring this up.

"Go on then, show me." He said, waving the fan negligently at the boy.

As he watched the boy clap his hands together in some sort of strange pattern and close his eyes, he wondered just what chakra was. What had drawn him here was the use of reiatsu, muffled though it was.

The secrecy the local power users held their techniques under would almost be admirable if it wasn't so irritating.

Then he felt it.

His eyes snapped back to the boy, who looked ridiculous in a pair of Jinta's shorts, gleaming with sweat from the exercises Urahara had set him.

And under the furiously swirling energies of his body, the faintest flicker of reiatsu.

It took minutes before Urahara could understand what was happening, and then he had to laugh. It was so simple, instead of learning to repress the douatsu until the reiatsu was clear and free, these Shinobi used the douatsu to pull out the reiatsu, muddying it, but making it much easier to reach.

It was both brilliant and horribly pathetic.

"Oi, Jii-san, what's so funny?"

Urahara fanned himself slowly as he explained his thoughts to the boy, watching as his thin features screwed up in concentration.

"What's so great about reiatsu?"

The ash blond took a moment to think and then put away his fan, picking up a rock and sitting forward.

"This rock is a weapon, if I clubbed you with it, you would die. Imagine that this rock is chakra"

The boy nodded his understanding. Urahara tossed the rock into the air.

"Reiatsu is like Benihime."

As he slashed, Urahara twisted the blade faintly, and the stone burst to dust. To the boy's untrained eyes, it doubtless appeared as-if Benihime had simply appeared in the midst of what was once solid rock.

"Chakra, is a raw ore, Reiatsu, a forged blade."

"Will you teach me?"

Again that question, but…

"I'll make you a deal."

He couldn't just give things away now.

Blue eyes narrowed.

"This chakra fascinates me. You work hard at your academy, and show me this chakra to the best of your abilities."

"And you?"

Urahara grinned behind his fan.

"Not only will I teach you how to use reiatsu, when you have enough control, I'll help you find a partner." He gestured with Benihime to show what he meant.

Urahara smiled down at the look of almost psychotic zealotry the boy gave him. Such a cute lad…really.

O0O

The first thing Naruto saw when he opened the door was a cat.

"Who are you?" he asked absently, slipping his geta off.

"I'm Yoruichi, who the hell are you, brat."

Naruto looked back to the cat. Who yawned and licked its paw before rubbing at its ear.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"Ah."

There were several seconds of tense silence.

"Yoruichi-chan!"

Naruto watched bemusedly as his teacher/uncle/father/brother dashed from the front of the store to yank the cat off its feet before spinning around and tossing it in the air several times.

The cat seemed to bear the treatment stoically for a moment before smacking the man across the face.

"Oi, Geta-Boshi, leave the girl alone."

Urahara tuned with a blank look at the tall young man in the doorway.

"Oh, you brought Ichigo-kun."

"No, the stupid brat won't stop following me around, so I figured I'd come by and dump him off on you."

"I see."

Naruto grinned, every time things got routine something came up.

Life…was pretty good. He turned to the strawberry in the doorway.

"Did your parents hate you?"

O0O

Naruto dumped the unfinished work on the table with a frown. Yet another design that didn't work.

As a budding artificer, Naruto had created dozens of odds and ends, some useful, most not, over the last years.

In fact, he'd had to ask Tessai to add innumerable pockets, straps, clips and buckles to the black, calf length pants he had taken to wearing just to hold all his creations. And the Orange trim on the add-ons looked rather snazzy, in his-own opinion.

He still wasn't sure why Tessai had cried when he started the job.

As he stood up, he absently brushed some soot from the flash pellet he'd blown up earlier off his shirt. It was nearly lunch time, and if he was late, Ichigo-baka would eat all the food.

Hn, stupid bastard couldn't even take the time to savor Ururu-chan's cooking.

Lunch was the usual spectacle of Ichigo and Jinta fighting over the food while Naruto and Kisuke calmly picked it out from under their noses.

Naruto was almost to his door when he heard it.

"Tomorrow."

His heart raced, a month before he left the academy, and he was finally ready.

He slept hard that night; it would be over a week before he slept again.

O0O

Urahara looked up as the door to the workroom slid open. He'd detailed Tessai to watch the shop for the last week as he sat here waiting for his apprentice.

Ururu had smiled at that, and told him he was a good person, he'd told himself he was curious as to who the brat would find as a partner.

He still wasn't sure who was right.

"Naruto-san."

"Urahara-sensei."

The boy stood steady for all he looked worn. And held almost reverently in his left hand…

"And who is this then?"

Naruto held the smooth, seamless length of blood-red wood wrapped in bandages before him, and drew the blade slowly from its home.

Kisuke ran a practiced eye over the fine craft. Most of the straight blade, which was slightly longer than the boys arm, was swirling patterns of black; he wouldn't hazard a guess at the number of layers folded into it. Both edges gleamed pure, flawless silver. The delicate swirls of the two hamon drew him in, seemingly infinite in their complexity. As his eyes ran up the blade, he noticed that it had no tip, As if the top of the blade had been severed.

"Hitokiri."

The boy breathed the word almost reverently. Urahara knew the feeling; the experience of holding a part of your very soul in your hands for the first time was something that couldn't be described.

Kisuke held out a hand to the boy as he slid Hitokiri home.

"Come, I'm certain Ururu-chan will want to stuff you with food."

Even leaning on his sensei, Naruto didn't make it halfway to the kitchen. Kisuke was honestly surprised he made it that far. He had spent the last ten days forging his spirit into something that could never be described as simply a sword.

Kisuke himself had barely made it out of the room when he was a boy. Most simply fell unconscious on the floor.

_Bt then_, he thought, _this is the boy marked by death._

He often wondered what tale lay behind the seal on the boy's stomach. In all his years, he had never heard of anyone who survived such an experience.

But for all his efforts, and his nihonshu, none would tell him what it meant. They knew, he could get that far. But after that, he only knew that it was death to speak of it.

He frowned as he dumped the boy on a futon. He was not a man who liked moving in the dark.

Had he not built power seals into the walls of the workroom, or had he been so incourteous as to examine Hitokiri, he would have been able to guess the story himself.

O0O

They were waiting when he stepped into the shop. Yesterday, he had slept off his exertions. Today, he was going to the academy.

Ururu stepped up first, and handed him a packet folded in red silk. He unwrapped the silk, which turned out to be a broad sash of fine weave. Inside were notes form the classes he'd missed. He tucked them into a pocket and wrapped the sash about his waist, tying it off above the front of his left leg. He thought for a moment, and then tucked Hitokiri into the back, the long, blood colored sheath hanging between his legs.

"Arigatou, Ururu-chan."

She blushed as he patted her head fondly. She was such a sweet little girl; for all that he was beginning to suspect she was no more than gigai and gikon. After all, she hadn't grown or changed since he first came to the shop.

Tears ran down Tessai's face as he handed over his own gift, a jacket of lurid orange, with the same type of add-ons that covered his pants, trimmed in black and split up the back to the waist. Naruto quickly tucked his lose white shirt into his pants and shrugged on the jacket, leaving it open.

Jii-san tossed his own present almost carelessly, and Naruto caught the bucket hat as it sailed past. He spared a moment to look at the black and orange stripes before setting it on his head and looking back at the small group.

Ururu was smiling sweetly, and Tessai's tears had redoubled, why was something Naruto would not chance to guess.

His sensei nodded calmly before waving his fan at the door.

Naruto took the hint, stepped into his metal shod geta, and left the shop.

He'd already missed a week of class, being late today wouldn't help matters with Iruka-sensei at all.

O0O

Naruto was in pain.

This wasn't terribly unusual, but it had been a long time since it was quite this bad.

Food would be nice, or Ururu-chan or even Jinta-kun to help distract him.

But with all the internal injuries, the torn tendons from when he tried to force more speed out of his legs and the burning sensation where his left leg ended at the shin, it would be a few minutes before he could walk, and hours before he was up to anything more than stumbling clumsily in agony.

So for now, Laying there staring at the ceiling was a pretty good alternative.

Blood and air blew out his mouth as something landed on his abused ribs. A face appeared over his head, the cute little pink haired girl that had arrived with the crazy man.

"Ken-chan was really looking forward to this you know."

A wheezing breath was the best he could manage in reply.

"Last time Kisy-kun had a student it took two weeks to make him fun, and you've been here for years."

Naruto managed half of a groan before reiatsu slammed into him like a cliff. He could SEE the jaws of some pink monster gaping open to crush him utterly.

"So next time Ken-chan comes to visit you'll be a-lot stronger, right?"

Naruto managed a nod against the ungodly force.

"That's great, Uzu-chan!"

And the child was gone.

Uzumaki Naruto stared at the ceiling with growing horror.

He had just made a promise to what had to be the devil herself.

O0O

"Oh, and one more thing. If you want to have any chance at all, you'll have to come at me with the intent to kill.

"Begin."

Kakashi gained a wealth of information from the bell test. He learned all he could about his gennin's abilities, their fears, their breaking points, and their teamwork.

Of course, it was far more accurate to say he learned about his 'potential' gennin. He had, after all, not yet found a single team worth teaching.

But this, the first thing they did, was always interesting.

The girl was a classic example of a civilian child playing at being ninja. She ran, arms pumping, to a tree on the edge of the clearing and then tried to sneak her way under a bush.

Wonderful, Iruka's reports said she was quite smart, (he had yet to see any indication of such), but the teacher was spot on with his assessment of her work ethic.

The Uchiha's reaction was quite well done for a rank gennin. He shot into the branches with a burst of chakra that was almost instantly suppressed before moving roughly a third of the way around the perimeter.

The blond simply stood in place, eyes shadowed by his ridiculous hat.

"You realize just standing there won't cut it, right?"

"There's something more to this test."

The boy actually had the audacity to pull out a fan, though he left it closed, Kakashi idly wondered if the boy actually knew a Fuuton Jutsu.

"Really?"

The boy snapped the fan open and held it in front of his face, letting Kakashi read the word printed in large characters.

'Baka'

"Rank gennin trying to steal something from one of the most well known jounin currently in the village?"

"Certainly not if one of them just stands in place." It was as close as Kakashi would come to a hint.

"I see. Still, difficult. Haruno has a decent head on her shoulders, if she ever learns to use it rather than fantasizing about how Uchiha-san will give her a bell as a love token after he beats you down. She's a bit deluded. Uchiha-san is quite good with traps and ranged attacks, he might catch you by surprise, and while I can't beat you by any measure, I'm sure I can distract you for a while up close. But…you're still Hatake Kakashi."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes and forced his perceptions to where they had been when he was a chuunin. It was among the most difficult of his many skills, forcing himself to see, feel, think and react at a specific rate.

It was also among the most useful for teaching students.

"Show me."

The boy snapped the fan closed, tucked it in to his jacket, and blurred.

He didn't run, his legs barely moved, he just stepped forward and the world seemed to twist as the boy elongated in a straight line and suddenly was beside the jounin, metal shod sandal blurring in a rising thrust kick towards Kakashi's chin…

To be met with steel. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the boy in acknowledgment. That technique, whatever it was, was impressive, like watching Hiraishin in slow motion.

Then he grabbed the brats coat and threw him away, watching idly as he righted himself and landed lightly, geta digging into the soft dirt.

Those lightning blue eyes shone with glee from under the hat.

And then he was attacking, leaping through the air, whirling on his hands, unceasing, relentless, and grinning all the while.

Kakashi had to admit, the boy was better then most of his peers, he might survive the chuunin exam, but he wouldn't win.

He sent the boy flying again, this time sending a shuriken after him to remind him not to try the same trick twice.

He watched, faintly impressed as the boy kicked the sheath at his back to the side, and drew the strange blade, which seemed to hum as it moved though the air, a faint tone, shifting constantly.

When the blade whispered through the fine Iwa steel of his shuriken with an almost gleeful squeal, he made a note to figure out who had forged the blade.

And, of course, to be very careful to enhance all his kunai with chakra before he tried to block it.

Which turned out to be a good idea as the boy used that odd technique again and was suddenly right there, beautiful blade arcing towards him. To meet his own kunai in a clash that seemed to resonate unnaturally.

The blond reacted almost a fast as he did to the whine of kunai, leaping away to let the knives burry themselves deep in the dirt.

More projectiles followed, and he spared a glance towards Sasuke, who was shifting position constantly, hurling weapon after weapon, he dodged something Naruto sent his way with contemptuous ease, not realizing his mistake until an explosion just behind him pitched him into the air, he twisted to see another of the paper slips, hardened with chakra slicing towards him and split it in two with a shuriken.

Then five tagged shuriken sailed out from the Uchiha's position arcing out to hit him from different angles, with another note from Naruto filling in the gap.

Kakashi cursed, it was a point of pride with him to never move faster than he had as a chuunin during these tests. He didn't have time to get all of them before they got to close for comfort.

He curled into a ball and pulsed his chakra, letting the concussion from the notes shoot him towards the ground. He uncurled and made three seals, diving into the ground like it was water.

Barely a moment after he paused to think, he felt Chakra surge above him, and the sound of a deep breath. He didn't even think as he surged his own chakra though the seal he held and shot through the ground towards the trees. He could feel the heat on his soles before he was far enough away to avoid notice as he burst from the ground and ducked under the gout of flame.

_That would be the Uchiha._

He brushed the rich soil off so it wouldn't fall on its own and leave a trail, and then moved towards the clearing.

He arrived to find the two moving slowly toward him, and wrapped a genjutsu around himself as he faded into cover.

"So, where should we start looking for the girl, teme?"

"I'm sure she'd come running for you if you called for her, Uchiha-san." The blond replied, sweeping his fan idly.

Sasuke scoffed, "The scarecrow would get here first, baka."

"Well then, I suppose we'll need to find her the old fashioned way." The fan snapped closed.

"Hn."

Kakashi faded back into view after the boys left. This group might actually get it in the end.

He was almost impressed enough to not be irritated at the thought of playing nursemaid.

O0O

Sasuke carefully balanced himself on the limb of his chosen tree. He had heard of ninja who could use chakra to glue themselves to branches and walls, but no matter how much chakra he poured into his feet, all he got was chipped paint and ruined bark.

There was a trick to it, he knew, but he wasn't about to ask someone. He was clan-less, not a beggar. He would discover it on his own.

Naruto, he refused to use the surname the boy had chosen for himself, was saying something about a trick to the test, and the jounin seemed to be acknowledging it.

Still, trick or no, he could figure it out after he had a bell.

The blond was right about his taijutsu though. Much as Sasuke hated to admit it, Naruto was better than he was up close.

_So, make use of that skill, let the teme distract the scarecrow, then hit him at range. _

And if a few of the weapons happened to hit Naruto? Well, it was an accident, really.

He ground his teeth as Naruto moved. He had seen that once before at the academy. One of the stupider boys had been taunting the blond about dodging rather than attacking.

Naruto had been standing several meters away, hands still firmly in his pockets.

And then, in a flicker so fast Sasuke could barely catch it, he was standing, fist buried in Sora's insufferably pretty face.

And before the unconscious boy even began to fall, Naruto was standing exactly where he started. His stance just barely different enough for Sasuke to believe that the boy had actually moved.

The scarecrow didn't seem terribly impressed, simply blocking that ridiculous excuse for a shoe with a kunai and tossing the blond away like so much trash, which brought a smile to the Uchiha's lips.

He followed the fight, if one could call it that, carefully, waiting until just the right mo…there.

A flick of his wrist sent three kunai at the pair and he was off, chakra burning through his coils as he forced his legs to _move_, one hand helping to keep him in the trees he blurred through, the other swinging mechanically out from his holsters and back, motions practiced every day for so long he barely thought about them sending cold steel at his target.

Then Naruto threw something, he couldn't see what, that exploded, launching the jounin into the air.

_Jackpot_

He hooked his legs into the branches and dug his now free hand into his pouch, even as the other pulled shuriken. Using the moments with the jounin helplessly airborne to run through motions honed not at the academy, but at home and in the forests, when other boys were playing with friends.

Motions with wire and tags.

The shuriken sailed out, one at a time for precisions sake, arcing in their flight to keep the jounin from blocking them all. Naruto even threw another whatever-it-was to fill the inevitable hole in the pattern, on the jounin's far side.

Sasuke bared his teeth as the scarecrow rode the explosions _into _the ground, disappearing into a hole that seemed to open in front of him.

_Fucking Douton._

He shoved himself towards the hole, hands already making seals, finishing as his feet slammed into the ground above the hole, drawing an impossibly deep breath, hand raising to his lips.

He poured flame into the hole, the fire continuing on and on seeking room to expand into its name-shape. He stopped, breathing heavily, and feeling quite satisfied with himself.

He turned to see his teammate, face _not_ in shadow for the first time all day, with his eyebrows raised.

"Very impressive, Uchiha-san."

"Hn."

Sasuke didn't need to return the complement. He had acknowledged the other boys skill long ago, he had no need to tell the boy again.

"What do you think the trick is, teme?"

The blond frowned, and Sasuke suppressed the urge to grin.

"I don't know. We all pass or we all fail, that much is clear, but…"

"Hn, useless."

They stood in silence.

"Maybe we should find Pinky. She might be able to figure it out."

"If you told her to, Uchiha-san, she just might."

The blond kicked his sheath to the side almost unconsciously as he slid his blade home.

Sasuke could swear that the rumbling moan as the blade slid home sounded almost irritated. As if the blade were a living thing and wanted to stay outside.

He shook his head as they turned towards the tree line.

"So, where should we start looking for the girl, teme?"

O0O

"We will meet tomorrow at seven, Naruto, Sasuke, you're dismissed, Sakura and I need to talk."

"Hn."

"Adiosu."

Sakura stared up at her Sensei as he loomed over her. The ropes were far too tight, and she could feel her skin chafing, even through her dress.

"Do you know why I passed this team?"

She wanted to tell him that Sasuke-kun had uncovered his stupid trick, but the tag on her mouth stopped that.

So she nodded.

The man seemed almost disappointed, though she couldn't see why, wasn't it good to know the answer?

"I need to show you something." He said, reaching up to pull the hitai-ate off his eye.

She was captivated by the red eye, tomoe slowly spinning, pulling her in, until all she could see was swirling black and red.

And then there was blackness.

And then…then…

Kakashi recovered his eye and looked dispassionately on the squirming girl.

She was screaming behind the tag, dealing with a crash course inexactly what happened when a team had a weak link and trouble struck.

He would probably catch hell for this, but he honestly preferred the thought of a reprimand for overly harsh training than one for allowing a defective candidate into service.

The girl as she was would get her teammates killed, at best. That wouldn't work at all.

He waited half an hour, then laid his hand on the girls head and broke the genjutsu.

The girl stilled, tears and snot running down her face.

Kakashi refused to look at her, instead cutting the bonds and turning away.

"That is what it means to be a ninja, if you don't think you can handle it, don't show up tomorrow."

He went all out on the dramatics and used shunshin to leave, adding in a swirl of leaves for flair.

O0O

He crept through the underbrush a quietly as he could, pausing at every rustle of dead leaves. He had left the place of the large-ones late in the last light, and this one was already half done. He curled up under a bush and tried to ignore the hunger that gnawed at him.

Many times before he had escaped, and many times the silent-ones had captured him.

Not this time. Not if he could help it.

The leaves rustled, and he froze.

A small long-ears nosed its way carefully through the brush, right past where he sat.

It had been long since he fed. Surely if he just went out to kill the long ears he could drag it back to his bush and eat.

Most of his kind would go hungry here, but he had spent much time in the place-of-the-tall-pillars. He rolled to a crouch, waiting for the perfect moment.

He pounced, fangs bared, claws reaching…

Something closed about the nape of his neck and pulled, jerking him painfully o a yowling, hissing halt.

He froze again as he looked into the strange eyes of a tall one.

O0O

Naruto calmly chucked the quiet feline into the sack Kakashi had started bringing after the third time he found himself with an armful of frantic cat. This was the third mission of the day, and the thirtieth time in the last three months they had had to go find the cat.

Sasuke and Sakura were actually working on another mission, running delivery for some merchant.

Kakashi had thought it prudent for the two gennin who weren't seen as anathema by most civilians to do the more visible jobs, for all that Sakura still needed to work on her field-craft.

There were various schedules followed by different instructors, but Kakashi had elected t split the team in two , some times like they were now, other times having the two boys work together while he worked with Sakura at a training ground, or watched her run errands for villagers.

Two days a week, they had 'teamwork practice' which involved working together on missions, or revealing their weaknesses and quirks to each other, depending on how sadistic Jounin-san was feeling.

Naruto scowled faintly as he dashed thought the trees with an occasional, careful use of shunpo. When he had described his greatest fear, the Uchiha had actually chuckled.

He'd like to see the bastard meet that pink haired she-devil.

He'd shit himself.

He landed lightly in the clearing designated as training ground eight and looked around for a moment before he spotted her.

He grinned, Geta-jii had asked him to make this delivery for him, and doubtless the man had some sort of crackpot reason for not sending one of his workers. But it wasn't like it was a bother to deal with the girl.

Besides, he hadn't seen Ten-Ten since he managed to manifest Hitokiri. And judging from the kama on her left thigh, and the attached chain coiled on her right, he wasn't the only one with something new to cause pain with.

This would be fun.

O0O

Kakashi allowed himself to scratch at his neck under the mask as he perched on the roof of a tenement complex. His two little gennin were just done with the deliveries their mission had required, and were splitting up after a quiet nod.

He was starting to think he had gone two far with the civilian girl. When she had shown up the morning after her genjutsu experience, he had been surprised to see both her hair and dress hacked ruthlessly short, as if the girl had taken a kunai to them.

He had later confirmed that she had done just that.

But her attitude was troubling; for all that she actually worked now.

In fact, that was the problem, she wouldn't stop working, and the strain was showing.

The constant D missions weren't helping. All three of the youngsters were chaffing under the load of busywork.

At least they were pulling together in common irritation, but that was a poor substitute for camaraderie.

He needed to get them out of the village, and doing something more vigorous, and challenging.

Or at least something with the illusion of importance, a low priority escort mission should do.

He kicked off his perch and towards the administrative district. He would have to check the mission request log and file a requisition.

If he waited much longer, the boys might get mutinous, and the girl would burn out without a reason to slow down and maintain "Efficient working conditions" for a month or two.

Besides, Gai was starting to grate on his nerves, and it was surprisingly difficult to avoid someone that fast.


End file.
